This invention relates to paper substrate transaction cards, and more particularly, to the method of manufacturing paper substrate transaction cards.
Current manufacturing of paper transaction cards are taking place using the same manufacturing sheet-fed methods used to produce plastic substrate transaction cards. This results in an overall cost of the paper transaction card to be either the same or more expensive than the traditional plastic transaction card even though base materials may be lower for paper than plastic.
Current manufacturers of paper transaction cards employ sheet-fed methods for manufacture because the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) specifications require transaction cards to be between 24 and 30 mils thick (plus or minus 10%). Intuition tells most manufacturers that substrates in the defined thicknesses are unlikely to lie flat if they are manufactured off rolled substrates (continuous web). Because a majority of transaction cards must have their magnetic stripe swiped through a card reader for validation and activation purposes it is imperative that the transaction card remain almost perfectly flat.
Currently paper substrate transaction cards are made by feeding and printing single sheets of paper 24 to 30 mils thick (plus or minus 10%). Paper stock can be finished to the preferred thickness usually 24 or 30 mils. Traditional paper substrate transaction card manufacturers currently do not have the capability to perfect paper sheets to the preferred thickness while also printing fronts and backs of the cards at the same time through one press pass. Rather, these traditional paper card manufacturers must first print the fronts of the cards, then turn the sheets over and run the sheets through the press again in order to print the card backs or vice versa. On each sheet a step and repeat method allows for the production of up to 100 cards per sheet with most manufacturers producing 80 cards per sheet.
Depending upon the capabilities and the equipment, traditional paper card manufacturers have to add special varnishes or ultraviolet light-cured (UV) finishes that requires a separate pass through a different manufacturing and printing machine. This may also be true if the transaction card decoration requires metallic or holographic foils. Card designers may also require a very thick layer of ink or varnish that traditionally requires silkscreen manufacturing equipment and yet another manufacturing operation and pass.
A traditional manufacturer of paper or plastic transaction cards usually adds the cards' magnetic stripes in a separate operation by laminating a thin film laminate already containing the magnetic stripe in the proper position to the reverse of the card sheet. Next the sheet of cards either goes directly through a die-cutting process or goes through a sheet cutting process to reduce the sheet of cards down to smaller sheets in order to go through the die cutting process.
For cards that require a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip and antenna, the traditional card manufacturer must print separate sheets of paper, such as half normal thickness, for the card fronts and backs. Then, a thin film laminate with the RFID chips and antennas are placed in the proper position to follow the layout of the cards, the manufacturer has to align the front sheet, the RFID sheet and the back sheet all together, then put it through a lamination process before going through the die cutting process.
Once the cards have been die cut to single cards a separate operation has to be performed to encode the magnetic stripe (usually to embed the card's serial number into it so that a magnetic stripe reader can read it for validation) and add a serial number using inkjet or thermal printing.
Single cards may also have to go through an RFID encoder to program the cards' RFID chips. Numbering can also be done together with this operation. Usually the manufacturer cannot encode the magnetic stripe and encode the RFID chip in the same pass.
Because the current traditional manufacturing method for paper substrate transaction cards are priced comparably or higher compared to plastic substrate cards, adoption to paper cards by conventional techniques has been slow even though a paper card biodegrades much faster than plastic.
Transaction card buyers want to be “green” but feel they can only be green if paper transaction cards are at least as economical or more economical than plastic transaction cards.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved method for manufacturing paper substrate transaction cards, which overcomes most, if not all of the preceding problems and disadvantages.